This week I’m reviewing eight RPG crowdfunding projects that end between December 14th and December 20th. These include a new RPG, a major third-party Pathfinder 1e rule expansions, adventures for D&D 1e, 5e, and Pathfinder 1e, as well as dice, and a map artbook that redefines printed maps. If you need more still live Kickstarters, check out last week’s column here for campaigns ending December 9th through 13th.

When I took over this column, I wanted to keep the vision that Angus Abranson set out, yet make it my own. At the same time, I needed to differentiate it from my “RPG Kickstarters You Should Back” column on the Open Gaming Network (which is a laser focused commentary). To that end, I’m experimenting with the column’s format and grouping projects by rules, adventures, and accessories. In the comments, please let me know your thoughts on this presentation.

RPG RULESETS

“EMBERWIND is a new breed of tabletop RPG based on the belief that games should adapt to their players, and not the other way around. EMBERWIND's modular game engine allows you to combine rulesets to suit the epic Heroes in your party. The Core engine combines the best elements of our favourite RPGs and video games from the past 20 years, plus some new innovations of our own, all streamlined to make it easy for new players to pick up and for experienced players to dive deeper into strategy and storytelling. This starts with the EMBERWIND Hero Manual: Core Edition, a resource book that gives players everything they need to create fully fleshed, customized Heroes using the game's nine main Classes and drop them into new conflicts, storylines and challenges to test their mettle.”

EGG’S THOUGHTS: At Origins 2018, I asked Andrew Peregrine (writer for Cubicle 7among others) what he’d picked up so far during the show. Among his loot, he shared an early edition of Emberwind: The Skies of Axia, a fantasy RPG with striking art. Word of mouth will do wonders, so I headed over and met Derek Chung and checked out his game and I can say it looks great and offers a deal of innovation.

“When the mythic rules for Pathfinderdebuted five years ago, Legendary Games unleashed an incredible project - MYTHIC MANIA - teaming up with Kobold Press, Rogue Genius Games, and Dreamscarred Press to bring you three comprehensive expansion volumes, the Mythic Hero's Handbook, Mythic Monster Manual,and Mythic Spell Compendium. Altogether, we gave you over 900 pages of incredible material to blow the lid off your Pathfindercampaign with literally thousands of mythic feats, spells, monsters, magic items, psionic powers, class features, path abilities, skills, traps, curses, and more to make your campaign dynamic and cinematic in ways it never was before. It was amazing and we thank everyone who made it possible. Since then we've continued creating even more magnificent mythic material, bringing you even more paths, monsters, magic, and more from around the world, and the time has come at last to close the circle and bring it all home to you. Welcome to MYTHIC MANIA II! Mythic Mania II encompasses two books rather than three, and incorporates mythic material for hardbacks like the Advanced Class Guide, Forest Kingdom Campaign Compendium, Horror Adventures, Occult Adventures, Ultimate Intrigue, and Ultimate Wilderness, as well as potentially adding in more material from the Adventurer’s Guide, Monster Codex, Planar Adventures, Villain Codex, Book of the Damned, Pirate CampaignCompendium, and more!”

“A classic AD&D + 5th Edition D&D fantasy gaming adventure based around a cold climate dungeon crawl! It has been designed for 6-8 characters, roughly 1st through 4th. I created a map I really loved, but it was just too big for one of my True Level Adventure modules, so I shelved it as I worked through other stuff. However, I just kept coming back to it, and this story seed that had some similarities to one of my all-time favorite adventures, Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl, resonated in my mind. While Glacial Rift was more for upper level characters, I couldn't help but feel that several of the monsters I'd designed for The Folio of Fiendish Monsters would be perfect for a lower level 'frost' adventure, and this map could house them. Couple that with an absolutely outstanding and hilarious Jim Holloway snow encounter cover (thanks Jim!) and I had to put it together.”

PROJECT TYPE: DM and single-player Duet adventure module with a version for four players

“As our story begins, a lone adventurer has booked passage aboard the merchant ship Crescendo, sailing north to the site of a mysterious magical endeavour that is widely rumoured to provide all of Irid with a measure of refuge from the chaos of the Everthroes. Much to the relief of all aboard, the Crescendo's month long voyage has been largely uneventful, but with mere days remaining until landfall, disaster strikes...the adventurer awakens in the middle of the night to find the ship adrift and a strange affliction has beset the crew. A 5E one-shot Duet adventure (full party version also included) and a Duet Game Guide for the world’s most popular tabletop RPG. A PDF download of Adrift in the Dark: a one-shot 5E adventure that I’ve written and designed to be played as a Duet. This short mystery/thriller adventure takes place aboard a pair of drifting ships, and is suitable for new players and fledgling Dungeon Masters, but still has plenty to offer those with more experience. Most groups finish the adventure in 4 to 5 hours.”

NOTE: “Due to the title "Uninvited Guests" being shared with an Adventurer's League product (DDAL05-03, during the Storm King's Thunder season), this title will most definitely change. This product is not related to the AL release in any way, shape or form. Uninvited Guests is a short, one-shot social adventure for Dungeons and Dragons 5thand for Pathfinder. It is technically for any level (although it might be hard to explain why a high level party would be in such a situation) and is designed to be run in a single session. The party is tasked with retrieving an item in the possession of Venril, a prominent local noble that lives on a lavish estate at the edge of town. The item has to be retrieved today, which is a problem because tonight is the night of Venril's yearly gala where he invites all the nobles of the city to one big party at his lavish estate. So the players have to go in undercover as event organizers provided by the equivalent of a local staffing agency. They are purposely put in to awkward situations where they must adapt to what's asked of them without arousing suspicion, all the time trying to determine where the item they seek is located, how to get it without causing a scene, and leaving without getting arrested. And doing all that preferably without having to kill anyone.”

“The Adventure Omnibus Kickstarter combines every single A, B, and C-series adventure released by Adventureaweek.com (AAW Games) from 2010-2018. We would like to preserve the essence of each adventure like a snapshot captured in time by keeping each module exactly as it was when released. The A-Series was where […] we dreamt up an entire world called Aventyr to use as a campaign setting available only on Adventureaweek.com with adventures which could be played in the setting or easily moved to a GM’s own campaign or setting of choice. The B-series was created by special guest authors and includes over 24 adventures designed for use in any campaign setting and a multitude of environments from city to wilderness, desert to temperate and everything in between. The C-series is inspired by and pays homage to tabletop roleplaying game legends such as Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson, and David C. Sutherland III. Dangerous dungeons and exotic encounters with challenges which can only be overcome by using one’s wits. These adventures will surely challenge both players and GMs alike. Jonathan G. Nelson, Todd Gamble, Joshua Gullion (RIP), Stephen Yeardley, Will Myers, Tim Tyler, and many others helped craft that which we would ultimately become. Now that eight solid years of releases have passed we decided the time has come to take the culmination of our efforts in the three major series we produced and put them into a retrospective omnibus, looking back at all we have done, capturing a moment in time if you will, and performing careful surgery upon ancient files in such a way as to produce something that has exactly the feel and quality of the original whilst adding in updated page numbers and links to accommodate for each series and the combined nature of the product. Behold, the Adventure Omnibus for Pathfinder Roleplaying Game! A culmination of works from 2010-2018 in four massive volumes numbering well over 2,200 pages in length!”

RPG/GAMING ACCESSORIES

“This project offers to gather, in one book, the different maps already published in De Architecturart, previous publications, a company specialized in adventure settings. These maps are meant to be used for your favourite role playing games and are a perfect inspiration to add some extra spice to your setting. As you will see, these illustrated maps and locations are a definitive invitation to adventure. These books have earlier been published in French for the French RPG market. Through this project, we intend to offer an illustration-only book, devoid of any text, being completely universal, whatever the languages you speak or are fluent in. Everything DeArchitecturart ever produced (maps, 3D views and so on) will be featured in this one volume. Overall, more than 120 buildings in full color, are yours to obtain. The book will be in A4 format and about 180 pages.”

EGG’S THOUGHTS: The artwork shared on the Kickstarter campaign page has to be seen in order to know this art book’s value to you as a GM and how it will impact your gaming table. Check out more images on the Kickstarter page here.

“These large size d20s capture the deadly fury of the five mighty chromatic dragons! Each of the five dice features a unique swirled mix that captures the coloration of a specific dragon type and is inked with a bright color that represents its deadly breath weapon. The 20 result on the die features a dragon design that lets you know that you're bringing the pain to your foes! The majority of our dice are scaled to a larger 19mm d6 size. As a result, they stand out on the table and are easy to read. These d20s are no exception and they will intimidate and make other dice flee before them!”

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February is a month of cold temperatures and warm feelings of love and romance. If you’re looking for something to do with friends when it’s too cold to go out, why not stay in and take a look at the Romance Trilogy?

There are a few fairly simple elements needed to make a solid RPG starter set, and while Warhammer Fantasy RPG 4E’s attempt won’t blow any minds it absolutely nails the fundamentals that new players need to get a game running.

After raising $2,121,465, Strongholds & Followers might be the most anticipated Kickstarter RPG (at least until the next record is broken). Of course, the bulk of the money raised went to the “Streaming” part of the Kickstarter so creator Matt Colville could get a proper studio for his very popular YouTube channel. The book definitely fills a need within the 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons landscape.